The invention concerns an ammunition bunker resting against a military tank turret. The bunker's outward-facing walls are scored. The bunker wall facing the crew compartment is unscored. The ammunition stowed in the interior of the bunker points away from the crew compartment. When the stowed ammunition explodes and the explosion suddenly increases the pressure inside the housing to a prescribed level, the pressure will break the scored walls apart at the scores.
An ammunition bunker of this type is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,913 which corresponds to German patent 2 552 470.
Specially designed scores in the outward-facing walls of the known bunker leave it stable and resistant to attack from outside. If on the other hand the stowed ammunition should explode, the force of the explosion is intended to break the outward-facing walls apart at the scores without injuring the crew.
Tests have demonstrated, however, that the interior pressure often rises too rapidly during an explosion, especially when propulsive charges for several shells detonate inside a bunker simultaneously, to be released rapidly enough by the known approach alone. The unscored wall between the bunker and the crew compartment can succumb and the crew can be injured. The pressure could also be released more rapidly if the explosion lifted the roof of the bunker, but the conventional roofs are too heavy to be lifted readily.